


Try It, You'll Like It (The Super Secret Boy Band Remix)

by orphan_account



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, First Meeting, Fluff, Furniture Shopping, Implied Sexual Content - blink and you might miss it, Natasha Romanov Joins the Avengers, Shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-25 10:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7529320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha's been disowned by her previous organization, and now she's shopping for a new job and a new couch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Try It, You'll Like It (The Super Secret Boy Band Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A New Affair](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5187413) by [cassandrasfisher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandrasfisher/pseuds/cassandrasfisher). 



> SHIELD and Fury didn't start up the Avengers in this story and Clint didn't formerly work for SHIELD.

"Tony calls it his super secret boy band." Pepper looked simultaneously longsuffering and apologetic as she said it. "I keep telling it that it's not a secret if he's doing the Armed Force's and law enforcement's jobs in front of God and world, but Tony is—"

"Tony." Natasha shot her an understanding smile.

"Yes." Pepper sighed. "He's Tony."

Then Natasha opened the apartment door. To an _empty_ apartment. Minimal bags of groceries and a coffeepot had made their home on the kitchen counter and the bedroom door was open enough to see Natasha had a mattress and various duffels and supplies littering her bedroom, but the main area was empty of all but a couple boxes and another duffel bag.

 _"Natasha._ Don't tell me you're living like this." It was an affront. That's what Tony would call it anyway, and despite his flair for the flamboyant and the extravagant (and inappropriate or worse), there were points on which they agreed.

"The Intelligence Community did pretty much disown me," Natasha reminded her cheerfully as she tossed her keys on the counter. "I'll get a couch eventually."

"No." Pepper put all the force in it she normally used on Tony, drawing a delicately raised eyebrow from her friend. But she didn't back down. "Today. You're getting a couch today."

* * *

Natasha would have liked to protest as Pepper efficiently called Happy and bundled Natasha into her car for the shopping trip, but "I'm hiring you. Consider it a signing bonus."

"I haven't agreed to the Avengers yet," Natasha pointed out for not the first time.

Tony's super secret boy band wasn't as hush hush as he would like it to be, as Pepper had pointed out, but it was quiet enough that Fury had never had full files on its members nor been able to positively identify their regular aliases without any reasonable doubt. And it was Tony. Natasha wasn't entirely certain she was ready to be on call for any Stark, her forcible divorce from a HYDRA-infested SHIELD notwithstanding.

Pepper just sighed and issued a look so sincere, it almost took Natasha aback. "Then consider it a gift from a friend."

When she put it that way, it would be an insult and a burnt bridge to refuse. Natasha didn't think she was in the position yet to burn this particular bridge.

She pasted on a smile. "Fine."

* * *

Which was how she found herself bustled in and out of every furniture store she never knew she didn't want to visit. Pepper wasn't exactly a snob, but she dismissed every cheap option Natasha wanted to go for.

"It's neon green," she pointed out. "You hate neon green."

It was in her budget and promised imperviousness to blood stains, but Natasha kept her mouth shut and let Happy drive them to the next store. What she really hated was furniture shopping.

* * *

"So why super secret boy band?" Natasha asked curiously at some point between the stores.

Pepper just shot her a wry smile. "It's all boys, all the time."

"Ah."

* * *

Natasha ordered Pepper to wait for her at the last store, determined the search would end there. "I'll pick something out, then you can take a look."

Pepper gave her a look that said she knew exactly what that was about but responded graciously. "I have some calls to make anyway."

A Stark to check up on, fires to put out, a company to manage… Natasha could imagine.

She moved out onto the floor and wandered from section to section until she found a couple couches that might do. She stood between them, looking first at one, then the other while another shopper raised amused eyebrows at her performance. (And maybe it was a performance. It was easier to shop when she was playing a part and be in public when it wasn't her own self she was showing off to the world.)

"This one," she decided, settling on the plush upholstered green over the burgundy leather.

The guy cocked his head at her, curiosity lighting in his gaze. "How do you know you want it if you haven't tried it?"

Natasha opened her mouth to answer, then shut it again and stared at him, assessing him with actual observation rather than her previous casual glance.

He _seemed_ nice enough, polite, sufficiently distant to not invade her space, and if it weren't for the way he studied her so intently, she would guess he didn't feel entitled to an answer. He had eyes you could get lost in, and his gaze was more focused than most she'd been under lately. It made her want to answer. And if it made her find him attractive too, well, no one—least of all Pepper—had to know about it.

She smiled as if she meant it, even if she didn't, pulling on another mask more easily than breathing. "I need something to match my living room."

"Ah." He nodded, casual acceptance, but disbelieving if she was any judge of people, and Natasha certainly was that.

It was with a small amount of irritation that she went over and sat on the couch to 'try' it. She settled in and considered it. Not bad. A little stiff from its newness, but the thick cushions would break down well and still hold up against everything she'd do to them. The stain proof, easy clean tags on the end of the couch were a Natasha requirement, not a Pepper one.

She leaned back her head to look at the guy again. He hadn't moved in closer, but he hadn't really drifted away either. "Are you shopping for a couch too?" she opened conversationally.

"Me? Nah." His eyes crinkled when he smiled. "Just needed to get out for a while. Spring fever."

She raised an eyebrow, amused. "I thought that was a childhood affliction."

He chuckled. "Sometimes I don't think the guy I'm rooming with ever grew up all the way." He looked her again, less questioning, more friendly, and held out a hand. "I'm Clint."

"Natasha." She went ahead and shook hands, despite usually making people wait much longer before warming up to them. 

But there was something about him, something disarming and real in a way even Pepper didn't have. Pepper was corporate masks and social politeness over a steel core, strength in a form Natasha could appreciate and of the kind she often imitated. Realness like this, down to earth and uncaring of someone else's opinion was refreshing on the rare occasions she had the opportunity to deal with it.

"So hey." She decided to try something, maybe see if she ended up liking it. "Since you have nothing better to do, you want to help me get a couch home?"

* * *

She'd lost Pepper somewhere along the way, an apologetic sales person informing her that Pepper had to run and put out some fires.

"She said it was about the boy band?" The poor man looked a little uncertain as he said it, but Natasha just smiled and brushed it off as normal.

"Work for a band?" Clint asked.

Natasha shook her head. "I might though. Pepper's offered me a job."

"Ah." He didn't ask more questions, and she didn't volunteer more information.

Not until later after they'd installed the couch and tried it out with some of the decidedly more wearing activities it might be required to withstand in its future.

"I like your couch." Clint grinned at her as Natasha tossed a pillow at his head and wandered into the kitchen for some bottled tea.

"You probably like coffee or beer better," she commented apologetically.

"Nah. Whatever's fine." He accepted a bottle with a nod and took a swig before rolling it between his hands. "I think you ought to take the job."

"Do you?" She arched a brow. "And why is that?"

"Just…" He shrugged. "So you heard of Hawkeye?"

She stared at him for a long moment. "You're Hawkeye," she said, disbelief etched in her tone and probably on her face.

"No need to sound so surprised." He sounded mock offended but just grinned at her as he leaned back against the couch and burrowed in like a little boy. "Yeah, I’m Hawkeye and I work for the Avengers and sometimes it gets to be a bit much, but I think you'd fit right in. You'd like it."

"How do I know until I try it?" she parroted back at him.

"So leave if you don't." He glanced up at her, all puppy dog eyes and a pleading expression that rivaled Tony Stark's, and without all of the baggage that made Natasha immune to it. "Beats an empty apartment."

"Who said it's empty?" She dropped her empty tea bottle in the trash can and clambered back on his lap. "Okay, Clint, I'll try it." Then she kissed him.


End file.
